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Women and members of ethnic or racial minorities are underrepresented in a majority of state courts across the nation. To determine if a correlation exists between state-level judicial candidates' electoral success, their ability to raise money, and their ethnicity, race or gender, the National Institute on Money in State Politics examined the money raised by state high court and appellate court candidates in 9 states that held judicial elections in 2007 and 2008.

Fast Facts

A sitting Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, Louis B. Butler Jr., the state's first and only African American justice, was defeated in 2008.

In 2008, Candidates reaching into their own pockets accounted for half of the money raised by Washington Court of Appeals' candidates.

Two of the eight Supreme Court candidates in Pennsylvania in 2007 were women, both of whom surpassed the $1 million average raised by the six male high court candidates.

In Ohio, after raising nearly five times the amount raised by their Democratic challengers, two female Supreme Court Justices Stratton and O'Connor, both Republicans, easily defeated their opponents in 2008.

North Carolina incumbent, Justice Robert H. Edmunds, Jr., withstood a strong challenge from Wake Forest University law professor, Suzanne Reynolds in 2008. Reynolds raised slightly more in direct contributions than Edmunds, but both candidates participated in the public funds program.

John O. Steele, an African American, won an open seat on the Illinois Appellate Court in 2008. He faced two Democratic primary opponents and was unopposed in the general election. He raised more than four times the amount raised by the other two candidates.

In 2008, none of the seven candidates running for an open seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals were members of an ethnic or racial minority. The eventual winner was a female.

In 2008, in a hotly contested Supreme Court race in Alabama, Deborah Bell Paseur lost to Greg Shaw despite raising more money.